MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Fabio Capello currently remains the head coach of the Russian national football team, the acting president of the Russian Football Union (RFU) said on Wednesday.

"Capello has not been dismissed. But all salary payments have been made to Capello and his team," Nikita Simonyan said.

"Capello’s coaching future will be discussed further. We’ll conduct negotiations with Capello on the subject of further cooperation or termination of contract," the RFU acting chief added.

Capello took over the national team as the head coach in July 2012 and managed to help the Russian squad to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The team, however, failed to clear the first stage of the much-anticipated global tournament putting their coach in the centre of stern criticism and raising serious concerns in the country about the team’s performance in the next FIFA World Cup, which would be hosted by Russia in 2018.

Russia did not sever the contract with Capello after the Russian team’s weak performance at the World Cup in Brazil and the Italian manager also decided to stay with the Russian squad as the head coach until the year of 2018 as stipulated by the contract terms.

On June 14, the Russian national team in a qualifying match of the 2016 UEFA Euro Cup was defeated by the Austrian squad in Moscow (0:1). Over the past year, the Russian team has had only one official win (excluding the technical victory in a match with Montenegro), beating the Liechtenstein national team with the score 4:0 in September.

Russia’s daily Novaya Gazeta published in late April a copy of a contract inked by the RFU with Italian manager Capello in January 2014.

In line with the document, which was signed until July 2018 and stipulated an annual salary of 7 million euro ($7.6 million) for the Italian coach, the RFU practically had no rights of severing the contract unilaterally without paying a penalty, while Capello was granted such opportunity. Earlier media reports estimated the compensation for RFU’s unilateral severance of the contract with Capello at some $25 million.